Get a ticket fast-- these will not last. The Huntington has wrapped up its season by sending us off to Italy with its most elegant production yet— a stunning, full-throated, openhearted, operatic sweep of a musical, visually and vocally sumptuous! I was completely enveloped by THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA. L to R: Sarah-Anne [...]
It's THE BEST SHOW IN TOWN right now: JAJA'S AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING the Tony-nominated New England premiere now onstage. Presented by SpeakEasy Stage at the Calderwood, this comedy /drama by Jocelyn Bioh hits home at a hair salon on a hot Harlem summer day. Summer L.Williams directs an exceptional cast: Crystin Gilmore, MarHadoo Effeh, Kwezi [...]
There's SO much to see out there right now! Here are 4 excellent productions, and this week I talked about them on THE CULTURE SHOW (airing daily at 2pm on GBH 89.7) with host JARED BOWEN! To hear our conversation, click HERE and scroll to April 15, 2025. The segment begins at 34:20 seconds in! [...]
This is the closing-- or almost closing weekend for three shows now on stage in town so I thought I'd give you a quick last minute guide in case you are deciding to catch one of the below: IT'S A MOTHER F**KING PLEASURE to recommend this hip, hot satirical take down of identity politics and [...]
More than 140 nominations in over two dozen categories of outstanding actors, directors, designers, choreographers, musicians, and productions and 5 awards for visiting productions were announced today by the Boston Theater Critics Association (of which I am proud to be president!) for The 42nd Annual Elliot Norton Awards. The awards ceremony will be held on [...]
THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE is an old story with eternal clout. This rapturous production now onstage at THE HUNTINGTON is a rollicking exploration of love and reason, gender and power, politics and class. Yes, it was written in 1732 by Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux and has a marvelous cast but it's the rip-roaring [...]
SPRING has sprung with a number of delightful, moving, first rate productions now in bloom on Boston stages! Here's my take on two of them, both of which speak to the moment we are in: the indispensability of LOVE and COMPASSION and the tragic consequences when they are missing. A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE [...]
SO much theater and I've seen most of it! Here's my take on three running through MARCH 16! I loved LYRIC STAGE COMPANY's production of ART by Yasmina Reza starring a marvelous troika of veteran Boston stars who know just how to massage this three-way friendship into a roiling dramedy triggered by a piece of [...]
It's the most foundational narrative in the western world: THE ODYSSEY, Homer's epic tale of Odysseus's ten-year journey home from the bloody decade-long Trojan war while wife Penelope waits and weaves. The Wizard of Oz, James Joyce's Ulysses, HarryPotter, SpongeBob SquarePants and countless other tales owe something to the aptly named Homer. It would be [...]
THE GROVE now onstage at the HUNTINGTON'S CALDERWOOD PAVILION is simply magnificent. Playwright Mfoniso Udofia has given us an extraordinary theatrical gift which exceeds all the demands of the medium. The second in her nine-play UFOT FAMILY CYCLE, informed by the playwright's own roots as a first first-generation Nigerian American who grew up in Massachusetts, [...]
